This is a bit of a rant, but please try to stick with me through the whole thing
So recently OSRS (Old School Runescape) has joined a list of games that have replaced "Male or Female" with "Body Type A or Body Type B" with you selecting your pronouns secondary.
And it made me furious, but I had to sit down and ask why such a small meaningless thing that I only see during the character creator pisses me off. After all, isn't this giving a seat at the table for Gender Non-Conforming/Non-Binary individuals?
So I tried thinking about this issue from the perspective of a Non-Binary individual. See I myself am female (Transgender MTF for what it's worth), so the only thing I'm ever going to pick is the female option unless I'm doing a challenge run where I try to roleplay Guybrush Threepywood (Mighty Pirate!) while playing Fallout 3...
That's when I realized why I absolutely hate Body Type A/Body Type B
This is not a solution to a problem, this is highlighting the issue.
As a woman, I look at "Body Type A or Body Type B" and think "Well, I'm a woman, not a Body Type B, and isn't it kinda misogynistic that the secondary option is the female one? Like A+ for Men, B- for Women?"
As someone is very much not cisgender, I look at it and go "Well, isn't every FTM going to pick Body Type A with male pronouns while MTFs like myself go with Body Type B with female pronouns? Who outside of a Far Right Troll trying and failing to be funny is gonna pick the buff bearded dude and select the she/her pronouns?"
It was only when I went "Let's pretend I don't exist in a male/female binary and see how I feel about it." that I realized why I absolutely DESPISE Body Type A/Body Type B
Because when I look at it from that angle, I realize that if I am a non-binary individual, my options are to look like an overly buff dude but occasionally NPCs will refer to me as a They/Them, or like an overly curvy chick who again sometimes gets called They/Them....
That's when I realized why Body Type A/Body Type B doesn't do it for me.
Games that do this aren't being progressive or inclusive, they're changing the color of the cup that my drink comes in and pretending it's an entirely new beverage.
I realized that if the choices in Body Type were something like
A - Buff Dude
B - Slim Dude
C - Fat Dude
D - Skinny Androgynous Individual who doesn't need a bra/binder
E - Fat Androgynous Individual who doesn't need a bra/binder
F - Skinny Androgynous Individual who requires bra/binder
G - Fat Androgynous Individual who requires bra/binder
I - Curvy Chick
J - Buff Chick
K - Fat Chick
L - Slim Chick
Maybe have also an option for a big buff masculine dude who has big tits, because that's just how he rolls, I dunno just thinking aloud here....
My point is that gaming could abandon "A/B" in favor of something more like an actual spectrum of Height, Weight, and Gender Presentation instead of just awkwardly renaming the binary? I wouldn't get so up in arms about gender replacing body type.
I don't know what more I have to say on this. I guess it's just a revelation I had about something in gaming that bothers me..
So, wider gaming community. What do you think? Am I onto something or is this all crazy talk?
To me, the obvious answer is to do away with the concept of "gender" altogether. It's a societal construct that doesn't really need to exist in video game character creation, anyway.
Everybody is born one of two biological sexes: male or female. There. Those are your choices. Call it "apparent sex" and include a pronoun option to allow for players who want to roleplay gender nonconforming characters.
But like, not everybody is born one of two biological sexes, so if we're doing away with societal constructs we may as well get rid of this nebulous concept of a rigid biological sex binary.
Technically there is an extremely small amount of people born as both sexes (intersex), but they tend to have appearances that favor one sex over the other, so from a game development perspective, they're covered by having two sex options.
I think you'll find a good many intersex folk would have something to say about being "covered" by being entirely excluded by your arbitrary choice of categorisation.
Eek, this reads like a white person getting upset about someone using "black" instead of "African American"
Who's being excluded here? My suggestion was to change 'sex' in video game character creation to 'apparent sex.'
You said in your comment "they tend to have appearances" which in itsself alludes to the true fact that there's some who won't be "covered". I was more upset by your dismissal of their experiences than I was by your game design suggestion.
OOPS sex is a social construct too
Biological sex is far more complicated than small and large gametes. You can choose (somewhat arbitrarily) to define biological sex by one or more of
The only people who think biological sex is a simple categorisation are people who don't fully understand the biology of sex.
Man, I thought I'd found my people in this community, but my perfectly civil comment discussing scientific definitions of 'sex' was removed. That shows that this is likely just another echo chamber that can't abide civil conversation around scientific facts when said facts make people feel icky.
The worst part is I'm on your side. I'm all in on inclusivity and representation. I'm trans. I'm bisexual. I'm just open-minded, seemingly unlike whichever mod removed my comment.
You, apotheotic, seem civil enough. I was looking forward to discussing biological sex with you, maybe expanding my understanding in the process, but it's not worth trying to have a conversation if I have to worry about my responses being unceremoniously removed. For what it's worth, your reply has inspired me to do some more reading on the subject.
Reddit mod practices seem to have bled into every corner of Lemmy. Community: blocked. Good riddance.
I think it may have been removed because it was a misrepresentation of fact.
In case you still want to understand, here's a good place to start: